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A cross-sectional study had been carried out in the urban slums of Dibrugarh during July, 2007 to June, 2008 and a total of 316 preschool children (aged one to five years) had been included in the study. The nutritional status of the study subjects had been assessed by anthropometry and for this Z-score approach is utilized. In order to compare the prevalence of malnutrition in different categories, z-test for testing the difference between two proportions had been employed and χ 2-test was utilized for testing the associations. The study revealed that the overall prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting among the preschool children was 59.37%, 53.12% and 17.81% respectively. Also, it had been observed that the prevalence of stunting was significantly higher in children of illiterate mothers (p <0.01) and wasting was significantly higher (p < 0.001) amongst the children of working mothers. Underweight and stunting was higher in Class III socioeconomic group (p<0.01) and wasting was higher in class IV socioeconomic group (p<0.05) as per modified Kuppuswami's socioeconomic classification. From the present study it had been revealed that illiteracy, lower socioeconomic status and working status of the mother had a negative impact on the nutritional status of their children. The results of the present study indicate the urgent need for appropriate steps to be taken to improve the nutritional status of the children of these areas.

BACKGROUNDThe risk factors of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in India are increasing at an alarming rate for the last few decades. Obesity is one major risk factor of CVD which start very early in life, hence there is a need to determine prevalence and risk factor of obesity among younger age group so as to plan preventive strategies. MATERIALS AND METHODSA cluster sample with cluster size of 50 was taken from 16 schools to cover sample size of 800 with consideration of design effect. Socio-demographic, environmental, dietary, and anthropometric and laboratory risk factors were assessed in the studied population. RESULTSObesity was prevalent in 5%, while overweight in 10%. Overweight and obesity was found to be more amongst students having educated parents (p<0.05). Strong association was seen amongst tobacco product users with overweight (p=0.000) and obesity (p=0.001), secondhand smoke exposures and depression (p<0.05), alcohol consumption, less fruit intake (weekly) (p<0.05), frequent animal food product consumer with both overweight (p=0.007) and obesity (p=0.008). Maximum obese (2.0%) students were daily consumer of sweet snacks (p=0.030). Overweight and obesity were strongly associated with number of meals served per day (p<0.05). Significant mean difference of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and waist circumference between overweight and non-overweight and obese and non obese was seen. Second hand smoke exposure was associated with a statistically significant risk of overweight (OR=3.30, 95% CI = 1.754-6.210, p<0.05). Also hypertension was significantly associated with overweight and obesity with (OR=.30, 95% CI = 0.175-0.522, p<0.05) and (OR=0.25, 95% CI = 0.126-0.513, p<0.05) respectively. CONCLUSIONThere is a need to reduce the risk factor prevalence of CVD to address the future epidemic of non communicable disease amongst this group of population. Different health promotional activities can be implemented with implementation research for better evidence generation beginning at an early age. Since students spend most of their time in the school environment, so schools should promote positive health behaviour.

BACKGROUND: Diarrhoeal diseases are a major public health problem in all the developing countries. Each episode leads nutritional deciency even if recovers from diarrhoea. As a result, diarrhoea is a major cause of malnutrition, and malnourished children are more likely to fall ill from diarrhoea. A community based prospective follow up study design was carried out from July, 2017 to March, 2019. A total 800 underMETHODS: ve children were enrolled from 13 rural cluster and 3 urban ward. During follow up, episodes of diarroea, duration of each episode and associated vomiting was recorded. During one year follow up period 283 (35.38%) children reported diarrhea. Total episode was 344. OverallRESULTS: number of episodes per child per year was 0.43 with highest in children of rural tea garden population (0.54) and lowest in children of urban areas (0.28). Overall attack rate was 43%. Higher in children of rural tea garden population and lowest in urban population. We found signicant association of diarrhea with socioeconomic status, number of family members, age and education of mother. Incidence ofCONCLUSION: diarrhea was more among rural population than urban and further more in rural tea garden population.